Day 123: The War Machines Episode 1

For the first time since Planet of Giants, we have story set completely in the modern day, which is to say, the 1960s. And, unlike Planet of Giants, which was just a story that happened to feature modern issues, that could be transplanted to any point in the post 1950s world, here it is firmly set in 1966. It reeks of the 1966, such as through our new companions Ben and Polly who represent the modern young people of the day, as we meet them in a nightclub, swinging away in the 1966. There's the story matter as well, dealing with a supercomputer that is going to hypnotise people and rule the world. This is so wonderfully dated, because we now use computers on a daily basis, and yet 50 years ago, they were science fiction, machines that could end up enslaving mankind. But saying that this story is dated is not a bad thing, because it allows for the show to become more interesting, particularly for the viewers of the time. Because this episode is not set on a distant alien planet, or in Revolutionary France, instead it's set just down the street, both physically and temporally. Issues that occur in this story are relevant, but also the way that it's drawn is relevant as well. We finally get companions who feel trendy and modern, because they are trendy and modern (I'm not counting Vicki because she's technically from the future. Or Dodo, because she was never trendy). Doctor Who has firmly visited the modern day, and it's unlike anything we've ever seen before. Our new producer/script editor team of Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis are certainly very good at showing us things that we've never seen before happen within Doctor Who